Nouveau Livre de Desseins contenant les Ouvrages de la Joaillerie inventes et dessines par L. van der Cruycen en 1770, No. 12

Rectangular sheet of paper containing an engraving with a design for a large bouquet brooch and four designs for jeweled case watches that forms the twelfth page for a book of jewelry designs invented and created by L. van der Cruycen in 1770. The book, titled "Nouveau Livre de Desseins contenant les Ouvrages de la Joaillerie..." (New Book of Designs containing the Jewelry Works), contains a series of jewelry designs displaying a serendipitous flavor, with asymmetrical forms, "rocaille" and stylized natural motifs, and heavily decorated with flowers, ribbons and tassels, thus representing the taste of the Rococo style, which was fashionable in France and Europe during the eighteenth century. The designs present elaborately carved forms that were particularly sought after during the third quarter of the eighteenth century, which were to be accomplished by skilled artisans who would work out the decorations by hand. The use of various categories of jewelry design in one single sheet suggests an economical use of space for the publication of the book, which was probably intended for distribution among goldsmiths and silversmiths that would reproduce the objects from the drawings. It is also likely that many of the designs are real-sized.
The design for a brooch is made up of a bundle that contains a large flower and several branches with a variety of leaves, stylized flowers and flower buds, tied together at the bottom by a bowknot made of an ornamented ribbon. The designs for the case watches contain a variety of naturalistic motifs and trophies: one of them is decorated with a thin garland of leaves with a ribbon that interlaces around it, and another contains an ornamental motif with a crown, decorated with small garlands of fruits and leaves with an interlacing ribbon. The other two contain love trophy motifs, including Cupid's arrows and torch, that form part of small bundles of leaves and flowers; one of them additionally contains two loving birds, the other a small ribbon bow.